Public knowledge about Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922) is uneven. A high-caste Chitpavan Brahmin, Ramabai Dongre was born near Mangalore and later converted to Christianity in England in 1883. Returning to Bombay Presidency, she started a home for rescued destitute women called the Mukti Mission in 1898, located in Kedgaon near Pune. Ramabai’s biggest intellectual achievement lay in her translation of the Bible from the original Greek, Hebrew, and English versions into Marathi in 1925, meant for common and simple people. While Ramabai’s story has been at the centre-focus for historians of feminine leadership along with scholars interested in the history of Christianity, Ramabai’s contributions have mostly elided the attention of a broader scholarly spectrum. At our Online Talk #MissionMukti, historian Dr Deepra Dandekar will attempt to smoothen out some of these uneven creases while discussing Ramabai’s complexity as a brilliant woman leader of her times.

About the speaker:

Dr Deepra Dandekar is a historian specialising in religion, gender, and migration in 19th- and 20th-century India. She works as a researcher in the Department of South Asian History at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Her current project is a monograph on Pandita Ramabai and the Mukti Mission, explored through the lens of photography.